First lady Wu Shu-chen (
Wu also sued Chen Yu-hao for violating the Election and Recall Law (
"Chen Yu-hao has been making false accusations against me in the past few days by saying he had visited me at my home twice and gave me NT$6 million in cash," Wu told a press conference.
"This is an absolute fabrication and he is full of lies. I have never met him on any private occasions," she said.
Wu said she was forced to take legal action against the fugitive since "my silence might be mistaken for a confession" amid negative election campaigning.
"Chen yu-hao left huge debts in Taiwan but claims that his assets are much greater then his debts," Wu said. "If that were true, he should immediately return to Taiwan to deal with his liabilities."
"He said that he has no money and has become a vagrant, so how could he hire bodyguards and take out so many ads in Taiwan's media?" Wu asked.
The tycoon fled Taiwan in 2002 while awaiting trial on corruption charges. In interviews earlier this week in San Francisco, he said he could prove he visited Wu in 1994 and again in 2000 before her husband was elected president.
Wu told reporters yesterday that his description of her bathroom was completely inaccurate.
"A popular local magazine did a feature story on my home in 1998, when Chen Shui-bian was running for the reelection as Taipei mayor," Wu said. "Chen Yu-hao should have read the story before making his lies."
"He said there was no toilet [in the bathroom] but you can see the toilet when you walk in," she said.
Wu's bathroom was specially designed to accommodate her wheelchair. She was paralyzed after being run down in 1985 in what many people believe was a politically motivated attack.
She expressed concern over the increasing negative tone of the campaign, saying that "whenever there is an election, there will be these smear campaigns.
"In the 1998 Taipei mayoral election, opponents said that my husband had secretly visited Macau many times to solicit prostitutes, and in the 2000 presidential election, opponents accused my husband of being involved in a lottery scandal," Wu said. "Those rumors and groundless allegations all proved to be tricks to tarnish him."
Deputy Secretary General to the President Chen Che-nan (
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military